M&A: European Commission approves deal between Rosneft and Morgan Stanley

On September 3, the European Commission approved the purchase by Rosneft Oil Company of Morgan Stanley's petroleum trading business, the European Commission informed.

The European Commission received Rosneft's application on July 29.

Earlier, the transaction was approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Rosneft Oil Company signed a binding agreement with Morgan Stanley (USA) on the purchase of an international oil trading business from investment bank Morgan Stanley in December 2013. No information on the financial aspects of the transaction is disclosed.

The transaction was approved at a session of Rosneft Board of Directors on December 20, 2013. Its completion is contingent, among others, on regulatory approvals in a number of jurisdictions including the U.S.A. and E.U. and is expected in the second half of 2014.

The transaction encompasses access to a multi-branch network of oil storage facilities, significant amounts of oil and petroleum products in stock, related direct contracts with consumers and advance payment contracts, logistics contracts, and stakes / shares in industry-specific subsidiaries engaged in infrastructure, international marketing and research projects.

Within the framework of the transaction, more than 100 oil trading experts working for Morgan Stanley in the UK, the USA and Singapore (about one-third of Morgan Stanley' whole oil trading business) and ca. 180 managers from auxiliary units will join Rosneft Group.

Morgan Stanley's client-oriented business in the oil and petroleum products trading segment, the holding of shares in infrastructure company TransMontaigne (USA) and Morgan Stanley's miscellaneous raw materials trading business shall remain beyond the scope of transaction.

Rosneft Oil Company (tax number: 7706107510) is the largest oil company and largest tax payer in the Russian Federation. In 2013, Rosneft's proved SEC compliant reserves increased by 11.5% to 33.014 billion boe. The company increased daily production of hydrocarbons by 80% to 4.873 million barrels.

The company's authorized capital is RUB 105.981 million. This amount is represented by 10,598,177,810 common shares at par value of RUB 0.01. The company's largest shareholder is state-owned company Rosneftegaz.

According to the DataCapital information retrieval system, RAS net profit of Rosneft Oil Company in H1 2014 was RUB 54.829 billion against a loss of RUB 5.268 billion the year before. Revenue increased by 53% to RUB 2.217 trillion from RUB 1.446 trillion, GP by 53% to RUB 996.343 billion from RUB 649.653 billion.